In my kitchen: useful cookbooks and gadgets

Welcome to my kitchen. It is big and spacious, with plenty of cabinets. It is actually the same size of the dinning room of our tiny apartment in Australia

But what I like the most of my portable kitchen is my private collection of cookbooks. I am not one of those who research in internet for a recipe. I like to choose a book, to feel the pages moving through my hands. I thank my mother for that and her forty years of work at the library of the Botanical Gardens in Madrid.

My husband calls these kitchen utensils, gadgets. I do have some but these are not since I use them almost everyday:

• Braun food processor; 
• Kitchen Aid; 
• Phillips blender and a hand blender; 
• A fantastic Lodge cast iron pot and a pan. Le crousset pot. A press-cooker (a fast way to cook lentils, chickpeas...or when i am in a hurry and I feel like having a soup!)
• Other stuff :a big blue scale to weight the flour for the bread; a couple of colanders; a few very good knives, scissors, peeler, mandolin, grater, wooden spoons, spatulas; a marble morter and pesto; a set of measurement cups and spoons.

I have also some pieces with a special significant for me. They are memories of the places where I have been: beautiful terracota pots and bowls from Spain, perfect for slow cooking stews and to keep hot or cold the soups like fabada or gazpacho; there are phillipino wood bowls to serve rice from  the bazaar...

Magazines...

I get very excited when the monthly Bon appetit magazine (http://www.bonappetit.com) is on sale. Thanks to the subscription that one of my sisters in-law gave me for my last birthday, I am looking forward to getting the magazine Dish (http://dish.co.nz) in the diplomatic bag.

Books...

I have some favorite books that I would recommend you for particular reasons. I read them in bed as they were novels. Each book has taught me something, how to poach an egg, how to cook rice, how to make shortcrust pastry.... And that's how I learnt to cook: reading cookbooks, observing the way other people cook (especially my dad!) and practicing in the kitchen. Again, "perseverance".

These books have been a very good investment in my cooking skills:

1. The Cook's Companion, Stephanie Alexander: what can I cook with this zucchini? you might wonder sometimes...well, this is the "bible" if you want to learnt to cook or even if you are already a cook but you have doubts about any dish or ingredient. The recipes never fail. You will learn how to select a good brocoli and how to cook it, for example.  It was given to me by my sister in-law, 13 years ago during my first visit to Australia when Nick was introducing me to his family and his country. But this is worth of a new single post in my blog.
2. Kitchen Garden Companion, Stephanie Alexander.
3. The Art of Simple Food, Alice Walters, who began the revolution in the food industry buying directly from the source and not being limited to supermarkets. 

Other books I like to use frequently:

1. 1080 recipes Simone and Ines Ortega: just Spanish recipes.
2. Marcella says..., Marcella Hazan: Marcella started her first classes in 1960s in teaching the techniques of Italian food. You feel she is talking to you through the recipes, like you were present in her small New York City apartment kitchen or in her Venice home. I would say she is the Italian version of Julia Child.
3. Other Italian cookbooks I use frequently (useful for those who need a recipe with photo): The Silver Spoon; Gino's Pasta, Gino D'Acampo.
4. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol II, Julia Child and Simone Beck,: I like the ilustrations that Alfred Knopf, Julia's husband, did by hand specially for this book such as the bread making chapter. It is a classic and easy to read. It transport you to 1950's
5. Le guide culinaire, Escofier
6. The kitchen diaries and Ripe, Nigel Slater.
7. Heart of artichoke and other kitchen journeys, David Tanis
8. South East Asian food, Rosemary Brissenden
9. Great Escape, Gordon Ramsay

From my culinary studies: 

1. Professional Cooking, Gisslen
2. The professional chef, of CIA

Sweet stuff:

1. How to be a domestic goodness, Nigella Lawson. Her "buttery" recipes always work...but watch out the scale! you will add a few kg just looking at one of them. Delicious, though.
2. The sweet life, KateZuckerman. You will understand why eggs should be at room temperature when making a cake. Very interesting.
3. Patisserie at home, Will Torrent, a bit more advance 
4. Any cookbook of Donna Hay is also great , uncomplicated recipes.

Buen provecho!